Method of retting ramie or similar fiber.



UNrrEn ATENT Erica EUGENE DEPETRO, or PARIS, EnANoE.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 707,907, dated August26, 1902.

Application filed May 26, 1902. Serial No.109,094. (No specimens.)

In (ti/Z whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, EUGENE DEPETRO, a citizen of the French Republic,residing at Paris, France, (whose post-office address is 65 Rue duChateau dEau,) have invented certain new and useful Improvements inMethods of Betting Ramie or Similar Fiber, of which the following is aspecification.

My invention relates to a process for removing from the fibers of ramieincrusting matters, such as gums and the like, this process consistingin utilizing the composition and properties of sea-water as the liquidfor causing the fermentation required to free the fibers of all foreignmatter.

This process has for its object the use of a liquid which in no wiseinjures the quality of the fibers, while at the same time it permits ofincrusting substances being disaggregated and dissolved. The alkalinenature of the salts contained in more or less concentrated sea-waterexercises a beneficial action for the preservation of the silkyproperties of the fibers, as will be explained hereinafter.

The substance to be treated-such as ramie, aloes, wood, and the likeisdipped into a solution containing the following salts in the approximateproportions given below: sodium chlorid, twenty-five grams; potassiumchlorid, .700 grams; magnesium chlorid, three to six grams; magnesiumsulfate, six to seven grams. Traces of alkali iodids and bromids may beadded thereto. The abovementioned proportions correspond to those of thesalts contained in one liter of normal sea-water, but the relative ratiobetween the salts remaining the same the concentration of the solutionmay be varied. At the end of four or five days and at a temperature of30 centigrade fermentation takes place within the mass, and at the endof eight or ten days fermentation the gum is completely removed and theoperation completed. It only remains to remove the fibers, which arethen entirely freed of the incrusting matters that have been dissolvedby the saline solution. By the action of this saline solution theforeign matters of the fibers are not only disaggregated, but alsodissolved, while the alkaline nature of the solution preserves thequalities of the fibers.

I do not restrict myself to the proportions of salts hereinbefore statednor to the degree of concentration of the liquid, which must contain insolution the aforesaid salts and which are those mainly contained inseawater. I could, therefore, with a variable degree of concentrationuse either ordinary sea-water or an aqueous solution containing theaforesaid salts in the same, or about the same, proportions as theyexist in sea-Water.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of myinvention and in what manner it may be performed, I declare what I claimis- The process for removing from the fibers of ramie, aloes, wood andthe like incrusting matters such as gums and the like, which consists oftreating these bodies with natural sea-Water or with a solution of saltsprepared so as to have nearly the composition of the sea-water,substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

EUGENE DEPETRO.

WVitnesses:

EDWARD P. MAOLEAN, EMILE KLOTZ;

